Books,  Relationship with God

The tragic misunderstanding that leads to either arrogance or burnout

I’ve got a little bit of time here at Melbourne airport while I wait for my fellow Arrow participants to arrive.

I’ve been looking forward to this week. I have found real encouragement and challenging stimulation through the Arrow leadership program.

At the start of the Arrow program they warn participants that normally around 40% of us will be in a different role by the time we are finished. That warning has certainly been true for me, and I come to this week in transition and still working out what exactly I am transitioning to.

I’ve been enjoying the process of finishing off the Kingdom Cells book and getting it ready for publication.

One of the things I have found particularly valuable are the number of church and Christian leaders who have volunteered really useful feedback and seen the book as important.

I have been chewing over feedback I had from Peter Corney a few months ago where he pointed out that the link between God’s Spirit and the Kingdom of God needed to be clearer in the manuscript.

 

N.T. Wright puts it this way:

But the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up and that we are to help make it happen.

Equally, the task of the church cannot be attempted without the Spirit. I have sometimes heard Christian people talk as though, having done what he’s done in Jesus, God now wants us to do our part by getting on with things under our own steam. But that is a tragic misunderstanding. It leads either to arrogance or burnout, or both. Without God’s Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God’s kingdom. Without God’s spirit, the church simply can’t be the church.

The way Wright puts it is so simple but I realise how easy it is to fall into the trap he talks about… I might make a few minor tweaks on the book to make sure I have communicated this truth clearly enough.

I had a bit of encouragement on the weekend as the Salvation Army Territorial Secretary for Evangelism based in London (Drew Mc Combe) connected and said someone had passed the manuscript on to him, that he wants to promote it within their system and wrote this endorsement of the book:

‘…the Kingdom of God is at hand’ were among the first words of Jesus and therefore reveal something very significant.  Matt Garvin’s book ‘Kingdom Cells’ is a very helpful book to enable God’s people of all traditions to revisit the radical nature of Kingdom.  I cannot help but think this may prove a resource that will help shape and inform the emerging mission communities,  and fresh expression of Church. ‘

It’s nice to be nearing the end of this particular project and I’m looking forward to actually holding a printed copy of the book in the next few weeks.

I'd love to hear what you think...